🎬 Final Inquiry Reflection: Documenting a Week in the Life
For my inquiry project, I created a video that aimed to show the real, unfiltered life of a creator no scripts, no glamorized edits, just the ups and downs of my week. What started as a 5-minute video ended being almost 7 minutes long which was not expected.
My goal was simple: document one week of my creative journey while chasing three goals being 40,000 new followers, 40 million views, and $5,000 earned. I ended up hitting two of the three: just over 20k followers, about 40 million views, and more than $5k in earnings. But what I really gained was a deeper understanding of the process behind long-form content and what it takes to build something authentic.
I flew to LA during that week and met an editor named Hayden, who’s MrBeast’s editor and works with some of the top YouTubers. I asked him for some adivce on the video and he noted the importance of grabbing attention early (retention is everything), but also keeping the ending real so like authentic. That changed my whole approach, so right when I got home I switched things up from it being a vlog to moments. I recorded my reaction to a bad post, recording myself getting accepted into a management agency, filming late at night after landing a brand deal. It became less about making a perfect vlog of my life to more about showing the real of life as a creator.
I learned that trying to document a full week isn’t as easy as it seems as you can’t just film and expect magic and break everything down from a 5-10 minute video. It takes 20 to 40 hours of planning, capturing, editing, and thinking. I also realized just how different long-form content is from short-form. The editing, pacing, storytelling. it’s a very very very different game, and it made me respect YouTube creators even more.
As for me at most im breaking down a 3 minute clip, which takes me 20-30 minutes to edit as you have to go over that clip so many times breaking down different parts rewatching it over and over. Throughout my Deep Dive, I bounced ideas off my class. The inquiry steps helped give me some structure, starting with a question, deepen it through research and conversation, then refining and learning as I went. I didn’t follow it perfectly, but having that framework in my mind kinda helped keep me grounded.
This project pushed me to show up authentically, take risks, and reflect on the type of content I want to keep making. Sometimes it’s about creating something that feels real.